Re: Beta Readers Wanted - Visual Basic 2005

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From: Larry Serflaten (serflaten_at_usinternet.com)
Date: 09/25/04 

Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 12:42:38 -0500

"Jesse Liberty" <jliberty@libertyassociates.com> wrote
> My hope is that my book will be accessible to non-programmers, but the truth
> is that there are about 2 million VB6 programmers who have not yet made the
> swtich to VB.NET.

And there are 1001 books that will try to get them to convert! ;-)

> Also (and I know everyone says this) I think I'll be taking a radically
> different approach.

My idea of a needed book on programming would begin with a short
history on the evolution of computers, a introduction to generic system
architecture (common motherboard components) and logic circuits
(AND/OR gates, etc.) and give the reader a feel for the evolution of
programming languages. That evolution would help to indicate why
hexidecimal is a common notation, and part of a chapter should
cover conversions from decimal to hex and binary, Hex arithmetic,
and include logic operations on Hex values.

Then go ahead with the basic loops and conditional constructs and
so forth, on into VB language syntax, the event processing model,
OOA/OOP (Object properties/methods), and framework classes,
et.al.

I am thinking anyone interested enough to pick up a book on programming
would be interested in the history of the technology (to some degree).
10 or so pages at the start may be all that is needed to capture the
interest of 'wannabe' programmers, without totally distracting the more
advanced users. (Having your facts correct would solidify what they
already know)

I mentioned it only because I've read several books already, and have been
in a couple courses where non-programmers bring up discussions on
dealing with the "things you did like that in VB6, you do like this in VB.NET"
syndrom that is inevitable in books of the type you indicated.

I'd suggest you avoid that pitfall. If your reader is a VB6 programmer,
chances are they can recognise what you are talking about was handled
differently in previous versions. If your reader is a non-programmer,
adding what some other language did is of no value, or use, and only
confuses the issue.

If you have also perpetrated that syndrom, I'd suggest you delete most
references of that nature, especially in cases where it would be fairly
obvious to the VB6 programmer what is going on.

How many pages was it? I have other things coming up, but, it can't
hurt to learn a thing or two... <g>

( I also have some text on the history of computing I wrote (several)
years ago for my own web site, if you'd be interested in how that might
look)

LFS

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Beta Readers Wanted - Visual Basic 2005
    ... > My hope is that my book will be accessible to non-programmers, ... My idea of a needed book on programming would begin with a short ... cover conversions from decimal to hex and binary, Hex arithmetic, ... obvious to the VB6 programmer what is going on. ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
  • Re: cFASM (calling FASM as a C function)
    ... By that, I mean that Tomasz ... While that was an effective programming style at one ... Given how heavily string instructions ... that the DELPHI code is _MUCH_ less readable then the HEX version and with some practise much easier to write read and maintain. ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
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  • Re: Microsoft Sucks!
    ... Heck, ... > got my first assembler/linker package and I didn't have to code in Hex, ... It was light years from coding in Hex. ... an Apple II was the biggest revelation I ever had to do with programming. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: 12 year old programmer to be
    ... programming is so complex that it almost requires a specialty anymore. ... The basic concepts I learned in C and the object oriented concepts I learned ... Today I consider myself a VB6 programmer ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)